Springizzle.

Finally spring is upon us. Today was in the high 60's, sunny and all around a fabulous day. I would have rather spent my time after work playing disc golf, but no one was around, and I don't exactly enjoy playing a round all by myself... so I headed back to Johnson Park to take some more pictures. I am very glad that I ended up doing that because I got some excellent shots.

There is a scenic drive that goes through the forest section of the park and that is where I was headed today. I went to that park one other time, but I had taken pictures along the riverbank, so I knew I had to go somewhere else. I was starting to get slightly tired of taking pictures in parks, I felt like I was running out of ideas. Today I got all kinds of lucky and took lots of shots that I'm very excited about.

I started out in aperture mode, but when looking at my first few images on the camera they seemed to be over-exposed so I went manual. This is only the second time I've done much playing around in manual. I understand all the settings well, but I'm slightly lazy and would rather just change shutter speed or aperture, instead of both... But it was a good experience today and I'm happy with the results.

I have little else to talk about, I just want to show off today's work.
Picture time:

[This is most certainly my favorite shot of the day. The color is just stunning. The imagery is pretty excellent as well. This is a flower or something I found growing right through the edge of this fallen and rotting log. Life from death I guess I could describe it if I wanted to get artsy.]

[Close up of the same plant. Below is it in black and white]

[This was odd plant I found along a small stream of water through the area. I've got a few more shots of this type of plant, along with one I found inside the stream]

[the stream]

[Cool downed log. I really liked the pattern of the bark, along with that little leaf that had landed on it. The third image is just the first one in black and white]

[Moss.]

[While walking the trail I saw some green in the woods, which is about the first time I've seen any new life while out taking pictures, so I had to get some shots. When I got up closer I found this plant along with the stem and head of a long dead flower. I just loved how it looked like it was part of the same plant, but it's really not. Just cool.]

As always the rest of my images from the day are on my Flickr account: Johnson Park Set

Generally I like to include funny things at the end of my blog, but today I will break away from the habit. Lately I have been listening to string quartets playing basically epic rock versions of compositions. I'm not exactly sure what to call the type of music, but I love it. Normally I would say that I dislike orchastra instruments because I find most orchestra music boring, but this stuff is, well, epic.

So enjoy these two songs: (second one is my favorite)

Comments, I demand them.